


Byron Howard and the Overlaid Life

by Nocticola



Series: Audrey and the Overlays (Identity) [33]
Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Child Death, Gen, Gonna write at least the first cycle, Haven: In the Beginning, I doubt i have the proper motivation without any interaction, Please comment or subscribe if you're interested, Temporary Character Death, Thank you for the first kudos! That helps
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:13:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27067690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nocticola/pseuds/Nocticola
Summary: Byron Howard has lived many lives with Mara's overlays.
Series: Audrey and the Overlays (Identity) [33]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1814905
Comments: 5
Kudos: 4





	Byron Howard and the Overlaid Life

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fic that very well might be too ambitious for me. I'm not sure how many chapters this will have.
> 
> The idea was to write an Agent Byron Howard character study while at the same time writing a bunch of overlays. I haven't worked out the timeline yet, I don't have most of the names or anything else for the overlays and I'm not sure how much research I can do about the historical periods. 
> 
> But I was curious about the early overlays, the ones who might have been very close to Mara, at least time wise. Also, how does Howard, a black man, deal with living in America? Not sure how deeply I will go into that but I am interesting in maybe figuring that out. 
> 
> I'm looking forward to seeing how this fic turns out lol.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on this comic https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/HavenSp4InTheBeginning
> 
> and 5x24.

Byron Howard enters Charlotte's home. He's not quite sure why he has been summoned. He knows Charlotte has been through a lot lately. Her daughter, Mara, almost died. Her husband took drastic measures to save her. Their people didn't like that, and banished him to the Void. Since then Mara has been acting up. Visiting the Void (but she hasn't found a trace of her father), with a local bad boy William. Byron wouldn't say it to Charlotte, but he knows Mara is a willing accomplish to William's schemes. But he knows from experience that you always want to believe the best of your children.

"Someone found Mara. She went through a Thinny into another world, called Earth. There are people like us, there. Less developed than us. Mara has learned how to use Aether. She has been experimenting on them. Changed their DNA. Given them horrible curses." Charlotte's voice is detached, like the scientist that she is. 

"Do you want something from me?" Byron knows he wouldn't be here if she didn't, but he's not sure what she could want from him. 

"I need someone I can trust." 

"To bring Mara back home?" 

Charlotte turns silent, closes her eyes. She is feeling grief. "To punish her."

Byron is surprised. The detachment is gone from Charlotte's voice, but this is not what he expected to hear. 

"How?" 

Charlotte turns to look at Byron. "It will require a great sacrifice." 

Charlotte shows him a crystal. "I have managed to convince the Tribunal to punish them separately. William and Mara will be separated from each other. Mara will have to learn from her actions. I found a way to dampen the damage she has inflicted on the people in the region, but only for a time. After that time runs out, the afflictions might come back. I don't know everything she's done, or how she's done it. I need someone who will know how to deal with the situation as it develops." 

"And you think I am the right person?" 

"We are immune to these afflictions. They can't hurt us with them. You will be safe." 

"Safe in another world, babysitting your... daughter." Byron pauses so as to not hurt Charlotte's feelings with a badly chosen word referring to her child. 

"I know it is a great sacrifice. The dampener needs someone to control it, and someone needs to tell Mara what she needs to do." 

"You think putting her on a time out for a few decades or centuries will help her see the error of her ways?" 

"No," the detachment is back in Charlotte's voice. "Mara can't be reasoned with. Not now. She doesn't understand the damage she has inflicted on these people. She doesn't even see them as people. Mara needs to know what it's like to be like one of them. To care for others." 

Byron is momentarily confused. Then he realizes why he's here. Why Charlotte wants him. "You want to use overlays? That punishment hasn't been used in centuries." 

"Yes, I do. Just because it fell to disuse, doesn't mean it's been outlawed. I have the permission of the Tribunal to use it." 

Byron doesn't know how to react. He's not quite sure whether he can do this. Whether he wants to do this. 

"I'm not saying yes. But tell me more about this sacrifice that is required." 

Charlotte once again shows him the crystal. "You have to become the Controller of the dampener. You have to leave your family behind, at least for large chunks of time. I do not quite know how long the afflictions will stay at bay. There's so much we don't know about the Aether, or what Mara's done with it. We don't know what this Earth is like, or the region is question. I think you're the right person for the job, but I won't order you to do this."

Byron thinks about it. To leave behind his children, his spouse, his world? Is it worth it? 

"I still won't promise to do this. But I will go with the group to find Mara. I am certain she needs to be stopped in some way." 

"Thank you." 

Byron leaves and goes straight home. He needs to discuss this with his family. This is not a small ask. Their kind lives for a long time. He might be back before he's missed too much of their lives. If he does this. His family understands that this is his duty, if he chooses to accept it. But Byron hasn't decided yet. 

\--- 

Byron arrives on Earth, in a place he now knows is called 'America' and he finds William and Mara and the wreckage they've left behind them. He finds a little boy, Edward, surrounded by a light that incinerates everything living that enters it. Byron knows what he has to do. He enters the light, and Edward looks relieved. That look doesn't disappear from his face when Byron cracks his neck. The light disappears, and Edward falls to the ground, dead. It had to be done. Just like this needs to be. When Byron looks at Edward on the ground, he thinks of his own children, and he knows he wants to protect his family and everyone else from Mara.

"Can you take back the Troubles?" He asks her, after William has been dragged away. He will get his own punishment. 

Mara looks angry, but not heartbroken. Defiantly and gleefully she tells Byron, "I'll never tell." 

Just then, Charlotte arrives. She will need to change Byron into the Controller, and they need to choose the dampener's form. But before that, Byron knows Charlotte wants to plead with her daughter, one last time.

"Mara, please. If you can, you have to fix this, Dove."

"Why?" Mara looks genuinely curious, like a child who doesn't understand why she should be punished for what she did. 

"Because the people here don't deserve all this pain." 

"They're not people," Mara laughs. 

Charlotte goes into science mode, "Mara, if you can fix things, the Tribunal can give you a different punishment. We won't have to go through with this." 

Now Mara looks slightly scared, "Through with what?" 

"I have been given permission to use overlays on you." 

"What?!??!" Now Mara is panicking against the men holding her. "You can't do that!" 

"Yes, I can. It's this, or they will kill you, or send you into the Void, into a place you won't return from. And your father, if he is still even alive, will never find you there." 

"Mom..." Byron doesn't know whether Mara is a very convincing actor or if the emotion in her voice is genuine. 

"This will let you learn from your actions. You will help these people, and fix what you broke." 

"What if I can't fix them?" Mara is careful to not have her voice betray whether her words are true or not. 

Charlotte thinks about it for a while. "Do you love William?" Byron doesn't know what to make of her tone. 

Mara manages to shrug, "Not really." 

"One day you will love some. And when you do, if you kill them, you will fix this whole situation." 

"How?" Byron asks the question before Mara can. They are very out of their depths here. What is Charlotte planning? 

"By destroying those you hurt." 

It takes everything in him to keep silent. 

Mara doesn't have such compunctions, "Now who's evil?" 

"You did this to experiment with Aether, right? You don't want them destroyed, you want to study them. Hopefully, you will also want to help them, fix them, someday. But if you love someone, and are willing to kill them to stop all this pain, it will do just that. End these afflictions, and you can come home. You will have, hopefully, gotten over this need to mess with Aether."

Mara looks at Charlotte with something like respect. "You really are a scientist. Science over people." 

"If that is the only way to end the pain you caused, that's what I will do." 

"So? Why won't you do it right now?" 

"You're not ready for that, Dove." There are tears in Charlotte's eyes. Mara ignores them. 

"You're right about one thing Mom. I'm not done." She turns to Byron, "So, are you going to be my jailer?" 

Charlotte also turns to look at him. 

"Yes." 

"Let's get on with it then," Mara smiles, like she won. Like this was only a game, and she is just slightly delayed in making her next move. Maybe she is. Maybe keeping her alive is too dangerous. 

Overlays haven't been used in centuries. Byron knows how to use them, but no one knows what the long term effects of them are. No one really knows how this punishment will go. 

After Byron has been made into the Controller, his essence trapped in a crystal, and they chose a simple barn as the outer form of the dampener, Byron looks up at the darkening sky and sees a meteor shower. The stars are different here. Maybe he will have time to study them until he is really needed again. 

They are interrupted in their preparations when one of the meteors crashes not far from where they are. Byron decides then that he really does need to learn about these stars, about this meteor shower, because that might tell him when one cycle will end and another begin. 

Charlotte is watching her daughter walk towards the dampener. No one is holding her now. She has to go in there willingly. Before Byron walks towards the dampener, Charlotte gives him something. 

"The smaller ring is Mara's, the bigger one is her father's. You can use them to visit home sometimes. And maybe... maybe Mara wants them, will need them, sometimes." 

Byron takes the rings, simple bands with green stones. He knows Charlotte has the last one from the set. He is grateful to have them. They mean he can go home, sometimes. He nods, and walks towards Mara. 

He knows something about the dampener even Charlotte doesn't know, not quite. Byron is not sure whether this will even work because of it. Because the reason the dampener is supposed to work, how it works, is love. Mara's willingness to enter the structure is one thing. Whether it will work requires something else. 

"I love you, Dove" Charlotte says before Mara and Byron enter the dampener. Mara doesn't say anything. She doesn't even look behind her. 

\--- 

"Do you love anything?" Byron asks as he is preparing the dampener. You can't tell it just looking at him, but his whole being has changed now. He is completing complex calculations, making the dampener ready. 

"I loved experimenting with Aether. I loved my father. William was fun. That's it, probably." 

Byron doesn't contradict her. Everything after this is done on a learning curve. Byron has a lot to learn about both the dampener and this new world he has gotten himself stuck on. He won't show Mara that he is worried about whether this will even work. 

But when he feels like the dampener is ready, he gives Mara a sly look. There is more to this woman in front of him. She's more than the angry half-orphan, raised by scientists, experimented on by her own father. Maybe she does have potential. Maybe this will work. 

Byron just has to wait and see. Until the next cycle. And all the ones after that.


End file.
